From the moment Pope Benedict XVI announced he will be resigning on February 28, speculation is abundant on why he resigned. The latest suggestion is that he will resign because of gay bishops and correspondence that has been leaded, aka the “Vatileaks.”
Last May, Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele was arrested and charged for stealing and releasing confidential papal correspondence. The documents are referred to as “Vatileaks” and allegedly portray the Vatican as a “seething hotbed of intrigue an in fighting.”
New reports have surfaces that the pope commissioned a “two-volume, three-hundred page document” that exposed gay bishops within the Vatican. It also supposedly reveals the large amount of power that the gay bishops have over Vatican officials.
The Italian daily newspaper, La Repubblica reported that the pope received the report on Dec. 17, which was also the day he made the decision to resign. The report was compiled by three cardinals the pope had chosen to investigate the “Vatileaks.”
La Repubblica reported that the report or “dossier” comprised “two volumes of almost 300 pages, bound in red.” The cardinals discovered factions one of which was “united by sexual orientation.”
La Repubblica quoted the report saying Vatican officials were under “external influence” from laymen. Those laymen were linked by “worldly nature” that the newspaper called blackmail.
A source “very close to those who wrote the cardinal’s report” said “Everything revolves around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments.”
The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi said, "Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter. Let each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be following up on the observations that are made about this."
He added that interpretations of the report were creating "a tension that is the opposite of what the pope and the church want" in the approach to the conclave of cardinals that will elect Benedict's successor.
The three-man commission of inquiry into the Vatileaks affair was headed by a Spanish cardinal, Julián Herranz. He was assisted by Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, a former archbishop of Palermo, and the Slovak cardinal Jozef Tomko, who once headed the Vatican's department for missionaries.
Pope Benedict XVI will resign on February 28. He will be the first pope to resign voluntarily since Celestine V more than seven centuries ago. Since announcing his resignation, the pope referred to “machinations inside the Vatican.” He stated that divisions "mar the face of the church", and warned against "the temptations of power.”
This isn’t the first time claims of a gay network within the Vatican have been made. In 2007, a senior Vatican official was suspended for getting caught making “sexual overtures to a younger man” by an Italian television show.
In 2010, a chorister, who is a member of the choir, was dismissed for allegedly getting male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. Only a few months later, a tabloid captured priests at gay clubs and bars and having sex on hidden cameras.
Only time will reveal the truths behind Pope Benedict XVII’s resignation.
Be sure to check out Kelly’s other columns:
National Family and Parenting Examiner
National Sports Celebrity Examiner
If you liked this article, click the Subscribe button to receive email updates when a new article is published. Follow Kelly on Facebook and Twitter or connect on Pinterest. Find more by Kelly on her website.
©Kelly Cozzone, All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without prior permissions from the author. Partial reposting is permitted with a link back to the original article.
Comments